ercookies | TDM 011: I PUT A SMELL ON YOU

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TDM 011: I PUT A SMELL ON YOU

00. Arrival

You come out of the water, the Nameless Island's own inherent energy drawing people in. It's like being suspended between realities and abruptly pushed from behind through a rift in dimensions. It may make you sick, or that might be the motion of the ocean, lifting you to the surface and carrying you to shore.

Waterlogged and covered in sand, new arrivals will be greeted by robots who welcome them with towels and bracelet devices. The A5 card is already loaded up. If you don’t manage to get away from them quickly enough, they may even usher you toward the Laid Bare Spa, where new arrivals will be offered free massages, a sauna, hairstyling, and their clothing may come up permanently missing. But you will be given a complimentary towel to leave with if needed!

Feel free to explore the Island, though there isn’t much to see beyond what arrivals before you have helped to rebuild. Most of the buildings are abandoned and in dire need of repair, and beyond the city lingers a thick fog that obscures much of the wilderness from view. Wander too far into this fog, and you will find yourself mysteriously looping back to where you began, your memories of what you were doing and how you got there erased.

With that in mind, it may be wise to stake your claim on a place to live in the now, whether a rundown apartment in the City, a tent on the beach, a bed in the barracks, or your own space at the House of Worship. Your inventory will be found a day later, wrapped up haphazardly and delivered to each person's makeshift home.

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I. SEASON OF EGGCELLENCE

As the wintery weather has shifted to warmer breezes and the snow has given way to grass and baby blooms, Islanders will find the robots in a flurry as yet another holiday takes hold. The Festival of Renewal, to welcome in the season of new life and awakenings of all those that have slept the winter months away. Spring has come and so has the time where life flourishes on the Nameless Island.

Islanders will see decorations set up all over the city signifying the change in seasons (much of which happens to be elaborately decorated eggs...lots and lots of eggs) and robots will gladly ask them of any lively changes they see sprouting up around the Island, from flowers, to baby animals, to animals in the act of making baby animals...there will be quite a bit of that going on for them to catch sight of. Islanders will be encouraged to start their own gardens if they wish, with various booths set up around the city’s center offering free seeds for different plants ready to be sewn into the soil. Each booth will have full grown versions of the flowers and plants they are offering on display. You might even recognize some of them from your own worlds.

But other booths will focus on different aspects of Life and Renewal, including booths of artwork painstakingly made in vibrant expression by the robots themselves of animals in the act of enthusiastic copulation! Oh, wait...that isn’t artwork of a deer or sheep. That might just be artwork of you engaging in enthusiastic copulation...and who is that other person in the image with you? Have you met them before? It might just be one of your fellow Islanders or someone you recognize from home. Robots are selling this artwork as first come first serve, but they might make more than one copy…

Those aren’t the only booths either, as other booths will offer free swag of flavored lubes, edible underwear, as well as genitalia-shaped gummies! And then there are the gourmet chocolates being sold at the Steaming Carafe cafe in honor of the festival! Ask nicely and they’ll give you a free sample, but be warned the chocolate does have mild aphrodisiac properties, but a couple hours waiting or an Auspicious Act won’t take care of.

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II. CHOCOLATE CURRENCY

The robots are also offering credits to anyone who might help them in managing the dozens of Rainbow Rabbits taking the city by storm, colorful animals that can be seen hopping and dashing through the city and the surrounding woods in a flash. Spots of color might catch your attention from the corner of your eye and you turn to see no rabbit there, but follow that and you might find an abandoned nest of leaves, twigs, or grass filled to the brim with colorful, shiny eggs of any design.

These eggs happen to look just like the hundreds of egg decorations you’ve seen all over the city...

Ask any robot and you’ll be informed that the decorations are made from the shells of these eggs after they’ve been collected and carefully broken open to remove the chocolate inside. That’s right. Chocolate eggs. Just where do you think they got the chocolate for those treats at the cafe? Carefully collect as many eggs as you can without breaking them, and turn them in to the café for your credits.

But what robots may forget to warn you about is that if you eat the chocolate straight from the egg, without it being processed first, it will not only taste delicious, but the potent aphrodisiac will be far more extreme and far more addictive. You might not be able to go a day without needing to eat more of it and achieve some carnal release. The more you eat, the shorter the timespan before you are overtaken by the unending craving. An endless cycle of heightened arousal and desire that can only be eased by orgasm...but that orgasm will be powerful, possibly the best one you’ve ever had in your life. Easy to see why they warn you about chocolate being so addictive…

Only completing an Auspicious Act or the healing waters in the Bathhouse will remove this effect. Until next time.

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III. SPRING IS IN THE AIR (AMONG OTHER THINGS)

Walking the booths during the festival, you might be lured in by a scent in the air. Something soft, or strong, or bitter, or sweet...a scent so familiar that you can’t help but seek out where it came from. The scent will lead you right to one of the booths where robots have bottles and bottles of perfume and cologne lined up. Perfumes they will explain are made entirely unique to each person.

That scent that caught your attention? That’s your scent. And now you have to have it. The robots will even give it to you for free. It’s a special tradition of the festival for Islanders to wear their scent and see who else might just be attracted to it. But that scent isn’t just to attract others to you, it’s to show them you’re ready to mate to whoever happens to be lured in by it. The scent will draw out your animal instincts and theirs, pushing them to stake their claim on you. They’ll want to make you theirs and theirs alone and all you will be able to think about is mating with them and being owned by them.

And if you’re attracted to their scent in turn? Well, you might feel the need to turn the tables and own them instead.

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N A V I G A T I O N

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"You're Percy."

He straightens up, not with a pair of glasses but a random shell absently turned over in his hands as he does a double-take. It can't be; Fjord feels like he's fucking ordained by the Augur at this point to find Wildemount strays.

Ignoring the question about himself for now, he goes on.

"Percy of Vox Machina?"

He lifts an eyebrow as he slides his glasses back on.

"Yes, I am." Which means this man is likely from Exandria, at the very least, if not Tal'dorei. "And you are...?"

His request for an introduction has been ignored, so he prompts it again politely. It feels more important now that he is apparently known. Percy looks past the other man to the automaton, who is still standing there with its hand out, offering something.

"Fjord of the Mighty Nein," he says while stepping closer and offering a hand. He follows it up with, "A friend of Vax'ildan."

And waits to see what kind of reaction that news garners.

Vax? His expression is carefully measured, but he accepts Fjord's hand.

"How do you know Vax'ildan?"

Someone from Vax's past, maybe, before they met? Surely there are plenty of stories he hasn't heard: he would remember if someone mentioned a half orc by the name of Fjord.

"He washed up here too, I found him. My special talent."

Wry as he is, he shakes Percy's hand and glances down to sneak a peek at that gun. Back up and he nods to the automaton, reaching for the device it carries.

"You'll need one of these if you want to contact him, everybody on the island has them. I can show you how to use it, if you like."

He imagines the guy wants to speak to his own friend first, before Fjord.

His hands are calloused but cared for, a few shiny burn scars and cuts. Percival accepts the bracelet and looks it over. He feels like he should be able to figure it out on his own, but he'd definitely need some time.

"I might have to defer to your experience," he admits. "Perhaps we can adjourn somewhere with less sand."

He's already covered, but he wouldn't mind a chance to dry off and at the very least clean his weapons after being soaked in saltwater. And he wants to see how this thing could be used to contact Vax... if he is truly here. He is not holding his breath.

"Sure, there are benches further up the beach."

The path he takes them leads into the first crumbling ruins of the City where no one tends to live, but there is a bench they can sit on as Percy gathers his wits and dries off. Fjord isn't certain that herding the guy straight to the houses is a good idea, not when he's so sword-happy; he gets the vibe that Percy needs to cool off a little first.

Being tossed around in the sea unexpectedly will do that to a person's mood.

"This device is connected to others on the island, you can see and hear them or write to them. Everyone has a name they go by, to make it easier." He unclasps his device from beneath his uninjured forearm, the one without the bandages, and activates it to show his display-name. "Mine is Hexadin, if you ever want to talk to me."

He gets the bracelet on his wrist to avoid losing it, then shucks off his water-logged coat. It's meant to keep the weather out, but even he doesn't expect it to hold up against an ocean. Percy listens as they walk, and hr takes in the sight of the ruined city. Where in the name of all the gods is he?

Fjord catches his attention again by activating his device.

"Hexadin," he repeats. "Noted."

He does not dare think what state his notebook is in. He'll check it in a moment.

When they find a bench, Percy sits and drapes his coat over part of it, leaving plenty of room for Fjord.

"Where exactly are we?"

"A dimension separate to Exandria, best we can tell it's ruled by an entity with magic-cancelling powers, the Augur. It makes demands of us in order to regain our abilities, but it never stops encouraging us to create the energy that regenerates this world."

He sits down, playing with his device to find his A5 card. Some of the 'requests' are crossed off and his shame has largely evaporated since arriving, so he doesn't feel as stupid as he used to when sharing it.

"Everyone gets issued a card with tailored demands, yours will look something like this."

He draws Animus and empties the chambers, leaving the ammunition on top of his coat. He uses the towel to start drying it off as much as he can.

Another plane? Dimension. He can handle that. If they could manage the Feywilds, he can manage this. Magic isn't something he relies on, though it's good to know he probably doesn't have it to fall back on now.

Percy looks up when Fjord pulls up the card. As soon as he sees sex on any of the squares, he straightens his back.

"You said we're meant to create energy to regenerate this place... how, exactly?"

That gun is so cool. His eyes only leave it when he has to dredge them up at Percy's question.

"It's called eros energy, it's produced by ... well, you can see by what." Nodding to the A5, which he brings back onto his lap. "My friend Caleb has figured out a way to see it, so we know it's real. For some reason it generates life in this place, and that's why we're being held hostage."

Percival keeps his eyes on what he's doing rather than looking at Fjord again as he takes a moment to let all of that information sink in. He straightens his back and tosses the towel over his shoulder.

"So we are here to regenerate a world with--hm." Yes, he gets the gist after seeing the card and he is not eager to see what else this place might demand. He takes a breath and lets it go slowly as he lifts his gaze, looking around where they've set down.

Hostage. That's what it feels like.

"I don't suppose they would rather have some carpenters, alchemists, engineers, and... I don't know. Botanists?"

"They don't care about any of that. Oh, you might want to check your belongings and powers, if you have any. They tend to take those away and have you earn them back, too."

Always a good warning.

"I arrived with none of my spells."

"Just a couple of cantrips that I won't miss very much if I can't do them."

They're useful, but not something he relies on by any means. But, now that Fjord has mentioned it... He reloads Animus and slides the gun back into its holster before he starts checking the pockets of his coat. He takes out a small notebook that has seen better days and sets it out to dry.

"That must have been jarring. Have you earned them back?" Fjord said that one could, so Percy assumes he's put his mind to doing so. He pauses. "How do you earn them back?"

Why is this guy so cool, casually putting together a weapon like that and holstering it like he's done it a thousand times. That's dope as fuck. Fjord tries to lean on the back of the bench a little closer to see what's in the drying book, but he doesn't want to be obvious about it.

"By having sex." There's no flowery answer to give. "As I said, I lost all my powers, so I'm having to build up a significant amount of energy for the Augur to return at least some of them. Six months of service is starting to, ah, wear thin though."

For someone with generally excellent penmanship and practice in calligraphy, Percy's notes are scribbled like he took them while walking. It's entirely possible that he did. One page features a smudged, but detailed imagining of a firing mechanism.

He nods when Fjord gives his answer, expecting it, but not thrilled. And the absolutely useless part of his mind thinks, briefly, that Grog and Scanlan would be far more useful here than him. Which is not to say that he is useless, but--

No. No that is where he is going to end that particular line of thought before it wanders too far.

"Six months?" he echoes. That's far too long. "I don't suppose there is any end of that service? No... quota to fill before it decides it's done with you?"

But if Fjord hasn't found it in six months, Percy does not want to hazard what that metric actually is.

"Some people have completed their cards and they're still here. I guess the Augur doesn't want to let anyone go until this island is back to however it used to be, before it became a ruin."

His gaze roves over Percy, from the white hair to his soggy boots.

"Vax has been here around two months, he lives with me. Us. He lives with us."

Fucking stupid brain; that's what he gets for banging the halfelf recently and inflaming all those old mating urges.

Two months. That feels impossible.

"Then we are guests for the Augur for as long as it wants us here. Wonderful. I take it others have tried to leave?"

He can't imagine that, in six months, no one has made an attempt. Especially if there is anyone here with a firm grasp on magic. Percy stretches his legs out, tempted to take his boots off, but he doesn't really want to walk anywhere barefoot. And he is very aware that he is being looked at.

"He is... well?" he asks of Vax, allowing himself to test those waters. He has no expectations, and he will not allow himself any hope. But he wants to hear all the same.

"Magic doesn't work against the Augur, remember. We'll all need to band together to destroy it, in the future ..."

He doesn't know when that is but he's optimistic. Staying here isn't an option, comfortable as the situation is sometimes.

"Vax? Oh, shit, yes." He can't hold back a bark of laughter. "Vax is alright, he's made a lot of friends. Do you know Gilmore too?"

"What about black powder?" he asks grimly. If magic won't work, have they tried mundane explosives? But perhaps that is a conversation for another time.

"Yes, I know Gilmore." If he is here, if Vax is truly here and alive, then at least he has not been lonely. He remembers that Vax and Gilmore were close. Percy's jaw tightens for a moment, then relaxes. This is still a lot to take in. He doesn't know if he's ready to be faced with his brother-in-law after losing him like that. It's his fault, in the end. He knows that it's his fault.

Percy rubs a hand over his face, pushing his glasses out of the way and leaving it there for a moment. Then he drops it.

"What do you suggest I do from here?" he asks as he looks at Fjord. "What the hell do we do from here?"

The man's got six months on him, surely he has an idea.

"Uhhhhh ..." Black powder. He's sure they used that in Hupperdook, but he never paid ... attention. "You could ask the Augur for some?"

It's easy to see how beside himself the fellow is so Fjord rests a hand on Percy's shoulder, giving him a bit of a pat. There, there, etc.

"What do I suggest?" Short term so Percy can at least find his feet? "Vax would skin me alive if you didn't stay with us at the house. Well, houses. I think the wizards have more room than we do. I suggest that you come back to the Neinhaus, have a bath, a hot meal, and sleep on the shock of your arrival.

"I know it's a lot, being half-drowned like that. Trust me when I say that the following morning isn't so bad."

"I intend to."

He could make it if he can find all the right ingredients, but that will take time. As reluctant as he may be to engage with this Augur and its demands, if it gets him his tools back faster... he may have to compromise and hope that Vex will forgive him, if he ever sees her again.

Fjord's hand is heavy on his shoulder. At the very least, he can admit that he needs a bath. And time to think. And, perhaps, time to mentally prepare himself to see Vax again.

"The first time was much colder, I think," he says of being half-drowned. For better or worse, he remembers everything this time. "I don't suppose you have anything alcoholic at this house of yours?"

About to ask whether Percy has been drowned before, Fjord is distracted by his own snort. He gives Percy a look that tries not to be amused.

"Vax had a bar installed, there's definitely booze."

"Good man," he says, just a bit strained. He will not have hope. Percival is aware that he's putting himself in Fjord's debt, in his companions' debt, and he has... nothing, right now, save for what washed up with him. He'll figure something out.

Percy looks at his boots for a moment, then nods.

"I need to get this salt out of my hair, if nothing else," he says, though now that there's a chance he can get wasted, he's looking forward to that. If he's going to sleep this off, he doesn't want to do it sober.

He gets to his feet and collects his notebook to put it back in a coat pocket. He doesn't put the coat back on, however. He'll just carry it.

"Of course. We've got a hot tub, you'll love it, and Molly has a hundred bath soaps so help yourself ..."

Fjord takes on the responsibility of giving Vax's friend some solid footing in a world where nothing else is certain. He keeps the questions light on the short walk to the Neinhaus, what Percy might like for supper dominates, until the dual white townhouses come into view: two pristine tall buildings side by side in a less than upstanding street of battered dwellings.

Fjord takes Percy upstairs and shows him the modern bathroom, letting him know that fresh clothes will be waiting in the bedroom across the hall once he's done. He doesn't want to overwhelm him with company, so Fjord sets out some of Molly's plainer pants, some socks, and a shirt on their bed, leaving the door ajar.

And then he absconds downstairs to cook Percy something that doesn't taste like seafood.

00. Arrival

I. SEASON OF EGGCELLENCE

II. CHOCOLATE CURRENCY

III. SPRING IS IN THE AIR (AMONG OTHER THINGS)

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